MTI fires chief executive officer

PHOTOGRAPHER: Bethany Bump

Mechanical Technology Inc. fired CEO Peng K. Lim on Monday, according to a Wednesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

MTI’s board of directors decided Sept. 6 to terminate Lim, who has worked at the Albany-based company since 2006.

The company’s lead independent director, Kevin G. Lynch, will serve as acting CEO until a replacement is named, according to the filing. During his first month in the role, Lynch will serve as advisor to the company with a monthly salary of $20,000.

MTI designs, manufactures and sells test and measurement instruments and systems that are used in semiconductor products, military and commercial aircraft, and general dimensional gauging.

Prior to his position with MTI, Lim held management positions of companies developing electronic multimedia. He served as president and CEO of the now defunct Tapwave, Inc., where he helmed the development of the Zodiac, an award-winning personal digital assistant with MP3 player, photo and video features.

Before Tapwave, Lim was part of an executive team at California-based smartphone manufacturer Palm, Inc., where he directed product development and engineering and helped quadruple revenues to more than $1.5 billion.

He has also held positions with Fujitsu, Texas Instruments and Zenith Data Systems, and served on the boards at Novatel Wireless and Inventec Appliances.

The SEC filing gave no reason for Lim’s termination.